That is an interesting idea. What if you always drew 7 and then put back 1 for each mulligan. You still end up down cards, but it reduces variance. Basically, it's like trading "discard a card" for "draw a card and discard 2." Still bad, but less bad. Disadvantage maintained, variance reduced. That's what we're looking for, yes?
Edit: This list EATS agro for breakfast. The problem is running into control decks that manage to keep Olivia/Niv from sticking and save any counters for rakdos's return. Slaughter Games, Nicol, and Appetite come in for the control matchup, but even then they're boarding in more answers and the matchup is slightly in their favor. Trying to figure out a way to make g1 better for me. Really wish I could find space for Stensia in here. Maybe just a 1 of and drop a swamp.
Why Tribute over Liliana of the Veil? I love resolving a Lil against agro, or even ramp. She enters, makes them sac a creature (even if it's just a crawler, they're not swinging in with it next turn and if it gets a dork that's less ramp for them). Then they have to get rid of her b/c discarding as agro is just horrible and I'm discarding stuff that I can flashback with snappy.
I like running with a heavy black base, though, so maybe the double black would be an issue for your deck?
This is my latest version. It has a lot of versatility and strong G1's against just about everything. I have won the past 2 events I played in with 4-0 finishes: FNM last week, and Monday Night Magic (MNM) two days ago. My LGS usually has around 30 people per event, so there is a bit of everything running around as far as my metagame goes. I have been really happy with where my sb is right now.
If you guys have any questions about any card choices, just ask! I'll be happy to elaborate.
Have you considered using thought scours in place of think twice? How does the tragic slip play w/o a Liliana in the main or side? Your deck runs more blue heavy than what I was considering, so maybe that's why Lil didn't make it into the list.
Really nice to see someone posting a list with their results, though. Can you expand on how well it does in the match ups it went up against? Is your area filled with Zombies (BR/Jund/BG/??)? Control (Bant/UWx/??)? Weird home brews?
Edit: Just noticed you have 14 cards in your SB, what's the missing 15th?
If he was 3GG he'd be much more balanced. The fact that he is 4G makes him incredibly easy to splash. Having said that, I still don't think he's a card that needs to be banned. He's just incredibly powerful.
Yup, won my Tuesday night draft at my LGS with Rakdos splash Izzet. It's literally the only way I see to play Izzet (as a splash). With rakdos being the only other guild in red, and Izzet not being viable to main, it has to be the splash for it. It's not entirely a bad thing since Izzet cards splash so damn nicely with Rakdos. Inspiration is awesome, voidwielder is amazing, teleportal is the nuts, some other nice bombs.
Edit: b/c of my access to izzet and having a stab wound, lobber crew, and a couple explosive impacts I never unleashed any of my dudes and had more inevitability than many of my opponents. In a Rakdos mirror he was the one unleashing and I managed to stabilize at 8 life before pulling out a win at 1 life. Also, heads up, never, ever, if given the option, allow yourself to drop to 5, or especially 3, against a rakdos or izzet deck.
That's interesting. I'd rather draw a lox late than a centaur healer in most cases, but I can see you wanting to make sure you get the healer as much as possible in opening hand/by t2/3.
I like Search Warrant, if your opponent didn't put out a creature on turn 1 but you did, bust this turn two, gain 7 life and see what their hand is all about.
Orrrr you could play a creature and have a threat on board?
4-0 with sel. Had a mediocre draw and my only splash was uw oring and azo keyrune. The consistency of land drops and creatures/tokens/life gain meant I only dropped one game to an izzet deck that swept my board turn before lethal.
I'm surprised by threw conclusion that sel < azo. Sel's ability to splash blue and get flyers/detainers made it way more consistent in my testing. Going to just copy paste the post I made on reddit.
I've done a **** ton of rtr sealed pre release practice. Selesnya was 7-3 with every guild except Azorius who it was consistently 6-4 with occasionally 5-5 if the Azo deck was just that good.
Selesnya is able to get the fliers of Azo and detainers easily via splashing. Only golgari can splash as reliably as Selesnya, but Sel has much stronger cards. Card power is roughly equal between sel and azo, leading to some games where azo manages to get sel down to single digits even, but sel usually stabilizes and then dominates the late game due to how consistent it is.
I can't emphasize how huge consistency is in these matchups. It's the only reason sel was able to beat azo, in my experience.
Edit: seriously, the ability to splash almost any bomb you open makes sel so strong.
I agree it's a very interesting idea.
I also really like the 7-6-6 idea.
I'm really hoping to lay a strong Grixis foundation here so that with the addition of Dimir in Gatecrash I'll be ready to hit the ground running.
2 Island
2 Swamp
1 Mountain
4 Steam Vents
4 Sulfur Falls
4 Blood Crypt
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Dragonskull Summit
Spells (25)
4 Think Twice
4 Pillar of Flame
4 Dreadbore
3 Liliana, of the Veil
2 Chandra, the Firebrand
1 Sever the Bloodline
2 Rakdos Keyrune
2 Rakdos's Return
1 Mizzium Mortars
2 Syncopate
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
2 Olivia Voldaren
4 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Sever the Bloodline
3 Slaughter Games
4 Appetite for Brains
2 Rakdos Charm
1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Cyclonic Rift
Edit: This list EATS agro for breakfast. The problem is running into control decks that manage to keep Olivia/Niv from sticking and save any counters for rakdos's return. Slaughter Games, Nicol, and Appetite come in for the control matchup, but even then they're boarding in more answers and the matchup is slightly in their favor. Trying to figure out a way to make g1 better for me. Really wish I could find space for Stensia in here. Maybe just a 1 of and drop a swamp.
Why Tribute over Liliana of the Veil? I love resolving a Lil against agro, or even ramp. She enters, makes them sac a creature (even if it's just a crawler, they're not swinging in with it next turn and if it gets a dork that's less ramp for them). Then they have to get rid of her b/c discarding as agro is just horrible and I'm discarding stuff that I can flashback with snappy.
I like running with a heavy black base, though, so maybe the double black would be an issue for your deck?
Have you considered using thought scours in place of think twice? How does the tragic slip play w/o a Liliana in the main or side? Your deck runs more blue heavy than what I was considering, so maybe that's why Lil didn't make it into the list.
Really nice to see someone posting a list with their results, though. Can you expand on how well it does in the match ups it went up against? Is your area filled with Zombies (BR/Jund/BG/??)? Control (Bant/UWx/??)? Weird home brews?
Edit: Just noticed you have 14 cards in your SB, what's the missing 15th?
Edit: b/c of my access to izzet and having a stab wound, lobber crew, and a couple explosive impacts I never unleashed any of my dudes and had more inevitability than many of my opponents. In a Rakdos mirror he was the one unleashing and I managed to stabilize at 8 life before pulling out a win at 1 life. Also, heads up, never, ever, if given the option, allow yourself to drop to 5, or especially 3, against a rakdos or izzet deck.
Orrrr you could play a creature and have a threat on board?
I've done a **** ton of rtr sealed pre release practice. Selesnya was 7-3 with every guild except Azorius who it was consistently 6-4 with occasionally 5-5 if the Azo deck was just that good.
Selesnya is able to get the fliers of Azo and detainers easily via splashing. Only golgari can splash as reliably as Selesnya, but Sel has much stronger cards. Card power is roughly equal between sel and azo, leading to some games where azo manages to get sel down to single digits even, but sel usually stabilizes and then dominates the late game due to how consistent it is.
I can't emphasize how huge consistency is in these matchups. It's the only reason sel was able to beat azo, in my experience.
Edit: seriously, the ability to splash almost any bomb you open makes sel so strong.